Saturday, October 15, 2005

Ducks Are No Longer Flying South

For a period of 10 years, Oregon fans had come to expect eight-to-11 win seasons. Then came last season, a crushing 5-6 campaign. But to his credit, coach Mike Bellotti identified the problem: Two of his former coordinators were now Pac-10 head coaches — Arizona State's Dirk Koetter and California's Jeff Tedford — and other former Duck assistants were scattered throughout the conference. Word was out on his old schemes. So Bellotti hired former BYU coach Gary Crowton the two went about installing a spread-option offense. Now Oregon, which averaged 25.6 points a game last season, is averaging 35 this season. And the Ducks are 5-1 and back in the rankings.